String time is now to win together, but the Rangers were unable to do it since mid-November.
A 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, counting Bruce Hart whispered the opportunity to stack up three wins, snatching two important points for the surrounding teams in the Eastern Conference wildcard race dormant for the night.
“We need to win the game right now, but we didn't,” Ryan Lindgren said honestly. “That's all that matters.”
It's been more than three months since the Rangers won three straight games on November 14th-19th. This was the second-longest victory of the season after collecting four consecutive wins as part of the 5-0-1 start of the 2024-25 campaign.
It happened to be just before the 4-15 stretches of the season. The Rangers are still making up when pushing to make the playoffs.
Having won exactly nine times last season (including 10 games in a row), the Rangers are in a precarious position where every win is essential and every loss is costly.
This latest loss will keep four points from the second wildcard after the game's slate on Friday, keeping all teams competing with the set they play on Saturday.
This was the latest example of the Rangers not being able to carry any kind of momentum until this season.
Of course, January was their most successful month, with 10-game Point Streak returning the Rangers to contest.
But even that still couldn't cancel all the damage done in the previous month.
The only remedy is for the Rangers to contact the regular season finish line whenever possible.
You have to start with just two or more wins.
“It's frustrating,” said coach Peter Laviolet, who held several newspaper conferences this season with such words. “It looked like it was on our stick most nights. It was in the attacking zone. We thought we were defending pretty well. After making a mistake in the second period, they looked like they were buried in the third period. That wasn't a lot of opportunity.
“We had good tips, redirects, screens, traffic. They blocked a lot of shots. [25]. I thought I was their goalkeeper. [Anthony Stolarz] I made some big saves. I couldn't find the third one, and at some point I couldn't find anything to separate. ”
The Rangers felt they deserved a better outcome, especially after overtaking their opponents 35-17.
Powerplay's Oliver Ekman Larson's one-timer brought the Maple Leafs 1-0 at the 1:47 mark.
However, once they stabilized from the fast side, the Rangers tied it down and ultimately beat the visitors 16-5 in 20 minutes.
Mika Zibanejad fitted Will Borgen's feed for the ninth equal goal of the season.
Toronto spotted the net in the second season when the Rangers got caught up in a bad change.
William Nylander was recognized for a goal that was not initially called one, but the replay showed the puck was just over 51 seconds into the middle frame, giving the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead.
The Rangers managed to tie it together, but plundered it from Sam Carrick's cross-check penalty.
Will Quill scored for the second time with Zibanejad finishing a 2-1 rush on his backhand.
It didn't take long for the Maple Leafs to regain their lead from their sloppy play in the Rangers zone.
Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin lost 14 saves but blocked his attempts to clear before Auston Matthews took Matthew Nice alone with a 3-2 score.
“I thought we played really well, and there were a few mental lapses on our part that ended up killing us,” Vincent Trokek said. “Overall, there were a lot of good things to take away.”
